42. Ghost of Tsushima - PS4 (12-15hrs)

Aesthetically this absolutely screams late gen console exclusive, but in terms of the overall package there's a slight [2015's best open world game]: Remastered air to it that I can't put my finger on.  I expected (and wanted) a no nonsense samurai game, and tbh dismissed many of the complaints on here as something I might personally appreciate, so it came as bit of a surprise that the initial 'this kinda isn't all that really' feeling never really went away.  I was never fully invested in Jin's journey, which meant the non-interactive aspect fell short of expectations.  In fairness I expect playing The Last of Us 2 beforehand may have tarnished the cinematic segments/character exchanges in this, but they didn't strike me as a particularly noteworthy; much like in Horizon: Zero Dawn the talking heads were just occasional ad breaks to sit through rather than the nucleus of the experience.  TLOU2 may have spoilt me, but it it seems fairer to acknowledge the high bar than pretend it doesn't exist.  Yakuza Zero, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (PS4) and Mafia III are examples of 'open world' games that hold their own in the narrative segments, imo, so I'm not impossible to please.  This is a bit of a painting-by-numbers samurai tale of honour/dishonour and while it's fair to say I had no major problems with the story on the whole, it's also pretty shrug-worthy.  Budding samurai eschews honour and fights the Chicago way, much to the chagrin of hisfavouriteuncle is the gist.  I enjoyed the chalice-swigging Bigface Big Bad and quite liked Yuna's character, but everyone else was sort of there.  The last fight felt particularly ill-judged, and without meaning to ruin things there are parallels to the ending of TLOU2 in terms of don't make me do this, but the forced participation was a view-through-the-fingers win in ND's game and a bit unappetising here.  
On to the good stuff, then.  The combat isn't far off excellent.  I'll quietly call it visceral and hope no-one rolls their internet owl eyes; it dances between brutal and measured superbly well.  It took me a while to warm to the rhythm but once I did it became the game's main draw.  The sensation of controlling an elite samurai in the heat of battle never got old, and it turns out the lack of lock-on was a shrewd decision in terms of mixing things up.  The standoffs were sublime and the boss battles - while not outstanding - were rewarding showdowns.  Positively delicious is the verdict on the swordplay; slipping an arrow in the nick of time and slicing the archer with a quick flurry always felt satisfying.

Back to the bad bits!  Stealth is poorly handled.  I neither enjoyed it nor felt like its rules made much sense.  I'm usually all for suspension of disbelief in these things, but standing on a not-particularly-high clothesline in plain view - yet apparently invisible to ground level Mongols - isn't really 'ninja vanish!' territory.  When it tries to be Tenchu it fails, when it's Ninja Gaiden (2004) it succeeds.  

Fast travel was appreciated, as were the swift loading and swish graphics.  It just never really felt like the open world was anything other than optional window dressing.  In Breath of the Wild I often found myself coaxed into gratifying exploration - even as a player who mostly shuns side missions - whereas in this I gave zero fucks about what might be over the next ridge or hill unless it helped me make a beeline for the next mission.  I guess clearing out the Mongol camps was fun, but not enough to tempt me to liberate more than three en route to the credits.  I tried to play this as if it were a Ryse type, and tbf it allowed me to do so once I had a few key perks unlocked, but despite the mostly glorious graphics the island felt a bit hollow to me.

Not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but anyone telling you this is in the top tier of open world experiences gets a Jinny reckon from me. [7]

The stealth is okay when it invites the player to sneak but I hated every section where it was enforced, particularly the ones with a prescribed route. It's worth pointing out that I dislike these sections when they crop up in almost every 3D game ever though, from Ocarina of Time to Red Dead 2. Tedious.

FML I just lost my Monkey Barrels review I was typing in here.  Is there any way to get text back after accidentally navigating away from a page in Chrome?  I did have it copied but lost it to paste the gif in ffs

Tried that

Wariospeedwagon wrote:

Don't mind it TLOU2 style, IE you pick off a couple of enemies, but when the shit hits the fan you can still have a gritty improvised fight with whatever weapons you have ammo for.

Same, but I played on easy as I found all the sneaking a bit much in the first.  So I got to play TLOU2 as a ridiculously cinematic pew pew shooter with occasional hide and seek sessions, which was perfect for me.

Yeah the two I'm thinking of were weak. Holding a pad to play grandma's footsteps isn't my idea of fun in 2021.

45. Panzer Paladin - Switch (5hrs)

Modern 8-bit style platformer, nothing new there praise be, but this one's got more game than most.  None of the reviews seem to mention Rastan Saga II as a reference point, but this is just as much a spiritual successor to that as it is Zelda II or the other titles that get namedropped (I haven't seen Blaster Master mentioned, and this pinches the eject mech function from that to good effect).  So if you're considering playing this you'd have to ask yourself if you fancy a methodical hack & slash with a slightly lumbering main character that isn't always nimble enough not to fall down holes. If the answer is yes there's a chance we might see eye to eye on the score at the bottom.  

Q.  Does this game do anything new?  

A. Yes - the weapons system is an intriguing stab at trying something different with a well trodden formula.  The problem is, it's a bit shit.  The idea of weapon categories and specific spells and degrading items all sounds interesting enough, but the execution is almost completely bodged as you can carry so many back-up weapons it renders item management practically redundant.

Do not play this game if you want something new, because everything it's good at is hugely derivative.  Initially you'll have multiple stages to choose from, which surely prompted the Megaman comparisons from reviews, but they're all roughly the same difficulty and none of the weapons bosses drop make other bosses any easier, so it's simply a no consequence/pick one deal.  After that it's a linear stretch of stages with a slight difficulty bump.  There were occasions where I ran out of lives and had to lose my progress in the stage (as of course using a continue wipes the checkpoint), but that's par for the course with this sort of game and I'd definitely describe this as fairly easy overall.  After an okay start I actually started to love this once it got going.  It has the simplicity of an 8-bit game but without the brutality of either a genuine 8-bit game or most examples of modern inspired by 8-bit games.  The upwards slice for double jump works well, the downward plunge is satisfying.  Instadeath holes are annoying by design, but there aren't really any Flying Bat knockbacks to speak of, so cautious play should see most players through.  The backwards dodge is probably a little OP as it provides instant invulnerability, but even that suited the slightly breezy vibe.  I'm not sure why every single stage had the same miniboss - which became quite amusing after a while, especially as his appearance is marked by a regal ditty each time - but I assume an assortment of mid-bosses landed on the cutting room floor at some point during development.  No biggie.  Music is good, not quite Cyber Shadow levels but decent, and the visuals are chunky with some neat background touches and very good use of parallax scrolling.

In summary if Volgarr is ultimate form Rastan this is more of a weird Cyber Rastan spin-off that has no business being as good as it is.  Thoroughly enjoyed. [8]

I expect I'll give it a bash at some point but I can never tell from reading about (or watching videos of) turn based battles whether they'll do the job for me.  They can't be worse than the fighting in Yak6 anyway.

46. Little Nightmares II - Xbox One (4.5hrs)

This might be one of the trickiest games to give an opinion on in the last few years.  On the one hand the way it plays is rarely much to write home about - and veers over the line into genuinely poor territory in numerous places - but conversely the mood and world design is absolutely spot on.  Even the horror tropes that should be old hat hit their mark.  It's a remarkable achievement really, and the visual delicatessen is just as disgustingly appetising as the original; as sequels/nightmares go this is as unsettling as a replaceable head watching one of the Wheelers giving Dorothy electro-shock therapy on TikTok.  The house of cards is absolutely stunning, but it's always wobbling about due to its wonky foundations.  Even a checkpoint as simplistic as jumping across suspended beds can be problematic enough to have you reaching for the nearest paper bag to scream into, with only the slightly canted camera angles and treacle-ish controls to blame.  How do you review something like that, given that you know it's fundamentally A Bad Game and every single player death is like nails on a blackboard, yet it succeeds in being a genuinely incredible experience in spite of its shortcomings?  Beats me, but I'd play another sequel for sure.  [7]    

47. Flinthook - Switch (20+hrs)

Superb wave based platform shooter hobbled by some irrefutably facepalm design choices.  If you can overlook its flaws - or at least try not to focus on them - for my money it's one of the best 2D games released in the past five years.  It has quite a lot in common with ScourgeBringer, which still remains my favourite roguelike, but the shooting is less kinetic and rewards patient play rather than a perpetual front foot approach.  It's an absolute slog to finish fully, as you can see by the total time I spent with it above, but if I'd known at the start of the first mission what I know now I'd still play it, which hopefully serves as a testament to its charms.  I'm not someone who enjoys 'wasting time' on games, whatever that may mean exactly, but the drawn out pleasure/pain of beating this one was worthwhile.  When the last boss fell the 300 tonne air punch would've KO'd a giant crab terrorising a cruise ship.

I could spend hours complaining about what I see as its faults, but as most people haven't played it and hardly anyone else is likely to play it I'll summarise them as briefly as I can: It's too hard, the perk system is a mess, the grappling hook has a mind of its own and the XP grind - which I certainly needed to take the edge off the insane difficulty - takes a lifetime.   Sub-headings under 'it's too hard' would be the over-use of seemingly unnecessary traps, the tricky to see nature of spikes, the galling difficulty swing between layouts, the fact that rooms often greet you with a lethal spot to land on and the ridiculous precision required to negotiate certain obstacle courses unscathed.  That little lot takes two whole points of shine off this game, which is maddening as without them it'd be pretty close to being absolutely incredible.  It's one good patch away from near perfection as these grievances could be tidied up in a month or three without anyone needing to pull an all-nighter (disclaimer: I could be talking out my hat).  The aftercare package has been done and dusted for years though, so what you see is what you get.  As an additional kick in the teeth it also crashes a lot.  I'd say I've had eight software error boot-outs during my time with the game, two of which came deep into a Gwarlock run, which in laymans terms means CUUUUUNT.  Unacceptable; if there's one thing a roguelike shouldn't do, according to the abridged gospel of me, it's crash regularly.

The thing is though, it's still a wonderfully playable game.  Much like other would-be greats of the gen - Trackmania Turbo, Trials Rising, Everybody's Golf - it's hamstrung by poor deign choices that contrive to prevent the glorious core from really singing.  I paid just under £7 for it and I've played it for almost an entire day.  The shooting is spot on, pretty much every enemy type is high quality (there's very little of the 'not this guy again' feeling these games can suffer from) and the bosses are strong.  Visually it's stunning, which isn't something I realised before playing - it really is a beauty.  Tunes are toe-tappy, controls are tight for the most part (aforementioned grappling hook annoyances aside, which occasionally refuses to attach to bubbles surrounding enemies in favour of latching onto hooks) and the just-one-more-go factor is huuuge. I know it doesn't quite deserve it, but this is one of the my big grin games of the past few years.  I've even taken to reading people share favoured load outs on Reddit, and mimicking combinations I like the sound of.  In a possibly nonsensical analogy I'll compare it to Anderson Luís de Abreu Oliveira, the Brazilian ex Man Utd midfielder.  For all the promise and occasionally top drawer performances he knew his way around being a wee bit crap from time to time, but that didn't stop him from being my favourite player since Solskjaer.  [7]

13. Mega Man 2 (NES) - 2hrs 52mins

Only the fourth Mega Man game I've completed so far. This one tends to top a lot of best of lists, and I'm glad to say it lives up to the hype.

The graphics are pretty much as good as they get for the NES, and it has some of the best 8-Bit chip tunes. A lot of people say SMB3 and Kirbys Adventure are the best lookers on the system, but I always thought Capcom games looked the best. Thankfully the gameplay us just as good as it looks and sounds, very responsive and a joy to play.

It's definitely easier than the first game, which is agood thing, and the inclusion of a password system is very welcome. Thats not to say its easy though, far from it. Once you defeat the eight robot masters you have to complete Dr. Wily's fortress which consists of an additional six levels that have to be completed in one sitting, no passwords are given after that point.

I think this is a bit harsh as they're by far the hardest levels in the game. Ninja Garden on the NES is often criticised for doing this and it's the main criticism I have here. I used save states between each of the six and without them I think this would have easily taken a couple more hours.

Top 8-Bit gaming, onto Mega Man Legends.

9/10

My list

Minnesänger wrote:

Thought I was already in this thread but it seems not. Anyway, I’ll use this post. Gonna try and finish games this year - or rather, see as much as I want of them until I’m done. 

Games “Completed”: 

1. Destiny 2: Beyond Light 
2. Detroit: Become Human 
3. Control 
4. Rise of the Tomb Raider 
5. Bugsnax 
6. Danganronpa 
7. Danganronpa 2 
8. The Last Campfire 
9. Oxenfree 
10. Donut County 
11. Slay the Spire
12. Danganronpa V3
13. Monster Hunter: Rise
14. Returnal 

 

Updated to include Monster Hunter and Returnal. Gonna try and knock out some indies on my backlog next, so should hopefully be able to keep up with THE CHALLENGE!

17. Outriders - 15 Hours - 7/10 - Xbox Series X

Though it took days for me to even boot the game, this turned into a riot. 3rd Person cover shooter that does nothing new, nothing out of the ordinary, doesn’t do anything incredible or spectacular, in fact, the cover system is a little worse for having it over 2 inputs instead of one. But...it’s ace. Crisp shooting, some really fun weaponry and armour, and some really intense firefights that required a lot of movement and thinking instead of just hiding behind one bit of scenery and waiting for enemies to pop up. Story was enjoyable, Avatar on steroids really, and the characters were fun if uninspired. All in all a good little shooter that I had a lot of fun with.

Liking the sound of RE8 - 7 was too scary for me so glad this one's gone a bit silly.  Will check it out on sale/gamepass.

Massive spoiler for the end there, smh